


What Tangled Webs We Weave

by BonesOfBirdWings



Category: Emelan - Tamora Pierce
Genre: Friendship, Gen, Telepathic Bond
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-11
Updated: 2016-07-11
Packaged: 2018-07-19 15:52:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,324
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7367890
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BonesOfBirdWings/pseuds/BonesOfBirdWings
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>As any weaver will tell you, it’s much easier to tangle a skein of yarn than to untangle it. Sandrilene fa Toren had successfully woven her friends’ magic together, spurred on by desperation and terror, but that was no guarantee that she could separate the strands again.</p>
            </blockquote>





	What Tangled Webs We Weave

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Seika](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Seika/gifts).



> Thanks so much to Mal for beta'ing! You're the best dad~

_This is strange,_ thought Sandry. She could feel the sway of her horse’s gait as Duke Vedris’ party made its way back towards Summersea. She could also feel the rhythmic swaying of her three friends as they rode on their own horses. Guilt churned in her gut.

 _Oh, not this again,_ she heard Tris think. Beneath the words was an aching tiredness. Sandry knew it wasn’t directed at her, not really, but she could also feel Tris’ irritation at this whole situation, which Sandry knew very well was her fault.

 _So sorry,_ she thought, a little viciously. _I can’t exactly control what I’m feeling._ She paused, trying to sort out the tangle of emotions. _I’m sorry,_ she deliberately projected after a moment. Projecting wasn’t really necessary any more, but it lent an extra weight to the thought, made it more deliberate. _I... I don’t think this anger is mine?_

 _It’s mine,_ Daja thought. She was still trying to sort out her feelings about the Traders, the other three knew. It was a large, looming morass of thoughts on the edge of each of their minds, and none of them liked it when Daja started picking at it. _It’s not going to go away until I deal with it,_ she projected at them waspishly.

 _We know,_ Briar projected, at the same time as Tris thought, _Can you do it quickly?_

All of them felt Daja’s frustration, hot and restless, like a willful fire. _I didn’t mean it,_ Tris projected, a little frantically. _It was a passing thought._

 _We’ve got to let things slide,_ Briar thought, forming the vague shape of an imaginary future where they continuously sniped at each other. The girls agreed.

 _I’m sorry,_ Sandry thought again, miserably.

 _It’s fine,_ the others chorused back, a mishmash of emotions accompanying their words. Briar caught Sandry’s eyes and smiled at her. She tried to smile back, but could tell that none of them were fooled. Firmly, she pushed the guilt from her mind. She’d try not to dwell on it any longer, for the others’ sake.

* * *

Briar, Daja, and Tris had long since fallen asleep. Sandry could feel the odd flicker of a dream from them as she stared sleeplessly at her nightlight. Alone in her head, finally, the guilt unfurled from the dark corner she’d shoved it into earlier in the day.

It was all her fault. She was the one who had woven all their magic together in the first place, and she was the one who, while trying to _untangle_ it, had managed to bind them all more tightly together. Lark had been so _sure_ that she could do it, but the strands had kept slipping through her fingers, becoming more and more snarled as she worked. At the end of it all, they had wound up like this, with their magic bleeding together and no mental boundaries to speak of.

And the worst of it was that the others didn’t even blame her for it. She could feel it – all of them were frustrated by the lack of privacy, and, to a greater or lesser degree, worried about re-learning how to control their magic. However, none of them seemed to be upset with her, just the circumstances themselves. She almost wished they were. She could have _done_ something about that – she could have groveled and apologized, and it would have fixed things, just a little.

She wallowed in her guilt for a time, replaying those moments where the strands of magic had entirely escaped her control, her fingers scrambling frantically for them as they twisted together, a dense knot of magic. If she had been a little more firm with them, a little better at weaving...

 _Sandry,_ she heard, a sleepy poke of a thought from Briar.

Swiftly, she shoved away the guilt again, back in the little dark corner that she didn’t touch, not if she didn’t have to. She thought she’d gotten away with it, but she felt Briar perk up a bit, become a little more aware.

 _What was that?_ he thought. _Sandry..._

 _Nothing._ The words tasted bitter with deception. Sandry winced. She tried not to think of it, but willfully ignoring something was much easier than purposefully not thinking of it. The guilt surged again

_Sandry, it’s not your fault._

_I know,_ she projected, but beneath that she thought, _whose fault is it?_ Briar, of course, heard them both.

 _Tris,_ he projected loudly, _Daja._

 _Oh no,_ Sandry thought. _Don’t wake them up. Please, they don’t have to get up...._

 _What is it?_ Tris projected blearily, her thoughts still heavy with sleep.

 _Nothing, nothing, please go back to sleep!_ Sandry projected. _Look at how you’re inconveniencing them again,_ the dark thing in the back of her mind whispered. _They’ll get sick of you someday. Better be–_

 _Okay, that’s just silly,_ Daja chimed in, interrupting the thought. _Sandry, what’s the problem here? You know we don’t blame you for this – you tried your best. Even Lark admits that she couldn’t have done any better._

Unbidden, the memory of the magic-weaving rose to the forefront of her mind – the frantic scramble for control, the sense of utter futility, the choking realization of failure as she looked at the knot of magic....

 _See,_ Briar thought, _do you think anyone else could have controlled the magic any better?_

 _Maybe!_ Sandry retorted. _And maybe I could have done better – if I had just–_

 _What’s the actual problem here?_ Tris interrupted. _It’s obviously not us – we aren’t blaming you for anything, as you can clearly tell. Why are you so troubled about this? You tried your best. And we’ll adapt, both to our new magic and to this... closer connection._ Sandry felt Daja and Briar’s agreement with Tris’ words.

 _But I’ve trapped you all!_ Sandry cried, sharp-edged guilt and smoky fear accompanying the thought. _We were in each other’s heads before, but there was distance, and the ability for each of us to operate separately! But now, no matter what we do or where we go, we will always have an awareness of one another. What if..._ she tried to stop her train of thought, to no avail. _What if we get tired of each other?_ She could imagine it, the resentment turned inwards, towards her, and no way to escape it.

 _We won’t,_ Daja thought. The other three could feel the full force of her conviction, as unyielding as iron. _We’ve gone through a lot together, and it hasn’t driven us apart. We get annoyed at each other sometimes, and occasionally, we don’t understand each other. Of course,_ Daja’s warm amusement washed over all of them, _this will probably help with the understanding problem – it’s hard to miscommunicate on this level._

 _Sandry was accomplishing it¸_ Tris pointed out. _She’s been thinking that she was condemning us to some terrible fate, and none of us picked up on it._

 _None of you are happy about this,_ Sandry argued. _I can feel it._

 _Yeah, it’s unnerving,_ Briar admitted. _And it’s going to be hard to get used to. But if I had to pick three people to share a mind with, well, you three kids ain’t bad._

Sandry basked in the affection, and could feel the others’ amusement at her enjoyment of it. She could feel, now that they were concentrating on it, the others’ nuanced opinions about their mental connection. They all hated the lack of privacy, but each was secretly a little joyful about the permanence of the connection. _Family,_ Sandry thought firmly. The others agreed.

 _Thanks,_ she projected, deliberately wrapping her contentment around all of them. She didn’t need to tell them that this helped – they all could feel that already.

 _Just don’t hide things from us,_ Tris grumbled. _We’re all in this together now._

 _I won’t,_ Sandry promised, snuggling deeper into her pillow. _I... won’t._

She drifted to sleep cocooned in the warm affection of her friends, a smile on her face.

**Author's Note:**

> Hey Seika - hope you liked this! I was inspired by your idea about what would happen if they didn't untangle their magics. I meant to focus more on the magic aspect, but I was like... hmmm, what if this made it impossible for them to get out of each other's heads?


End file.
